The invention relates to ejectable payloads for ballistic projectiles, and more particularly to payloads consisting of hollow annular containers adapted to receive an incendiary charge.
In the copending, co-assigned application Ser. No. 600,965 filed Aug. 1, 1975, and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,002,121 and entitled "INCENDIARY PAYLOAD FOR A HEAVY-DUTY BALLISTIC PROJECTILE", incendiary material is arranged along and coaxially around a central ignition channel extending between a nose portion and a tail portion of the projectile. The incendiary material is disposed, before detonation, within a plurality of hollow annular elongated containers which are successively disposed in abutting relation between the nose portion of the projectile and an end plate situated in the tail of the projectile behind the rear-most container. The individual containers, which are formed from a high-strength alloy of a light metal, are bounded radially by axially extending inner and outer cylindrical jackets, and are bounded longitudinally by a pair of annular end plates.
In order to reinforce such segmented container construction against a tendency to separate in the presence of high tensile loads occurring, e.g., during firing of the projectile, both the inner and outer jackets are reinforced by surrounding shells of substantially U-shape, the bent ends of the shells being received in recesses in the end plates and terminating flush with the outer surfaces of such end plates.